Real Money

Thursday's Small-Cap Winners & Losers

Air T soars on a rise in earnings.

Elsewhere, Arizona's Syntax-Brillian ( BRLC) took back most of Wednesday's losses after Robert W. Baird defused rumors that the company might stop selling its hi-def TVs to electronics retailer Circuit City ( CC) by 2008. An analyst with CE Unterberg Towbin had made the suggestion, which yesterday sent Syntax shares plunging. Today, shares jumped 15.1% to $5.25. Circuit City shares were lately flat at $16.72.

And Rudolph Technologies ( RTEC) was 6.8% higher to $17.11 after a "leading" disk-drive maker ordered six of its automated macro-defect inspection products. The stock buoyed both the Russell 2000 and the S&P SmallCap 600, which were respectively adding 0.7% and 0.8%.

But another Russell 2000 member, Jones Soda ( JSDA), was among few small-cap laggards Thursday after the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that coffee giant Starbucks ( SBUX) will no longer distribute some of the natural-soda maker's products by the end of this month. Jones shares traded actively to lose 4.7%, or 74 cents, at $14.94. Starbucks was off 1.1% to $27.46.

Finally, Xenonics ( XNN), which makes illumination products for military and other purposes, slid 6.8% on a downward restatement. The Carlsbad, Calif., company will widen its fiscal 2005 per-share loss by 2 cents to 35 cents, having reclassified certain litigation-settlement gains as a capital transaction rather than as income. Shares were trading at $2.62.